Nnimmo faults “HYPREP”, call for its scrapping

The Executive Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation
(HOMEF), and Right Livelihood Award Foundation Laureate, Rev.
Nnimmo Bassey has faulted the naming of the environmental
clean-up agency “Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Programme
(HYPREP)” and called for its scrapping.

The environmentalist made the condemnation during a visit to Goi
community in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State on
Tuesday, November 26, 2013 to see what has changed since the
creation of HYPREP to clean up the Niger Delta.

Speaking to journalists in Goi, Rev. Bassey wondered why a
programme that was designed to clean hydrocarbon from the
environment would be named “Hydrocarbon pollution Restoration…”
asking whether the agency was meant to restore hydrocarbon to the
environment or remove from it. The Laureate however, blamed the
naming error on the hastiness through which the programme was
created of which there was no time to think thoroughly.

“The name “Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Programme (HYPREP)
is wrong. This means to restore hydrocarbon into the environment
and not to clean up. They were in a hurry to create the body that
is why they did not bother to think well about the name before
making it public.” Nnimmo said.

The environmentalist and Right Livelihood Award Foundation
Laureate then called for the scrapping of HYPREP and replacing it
with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recommended
Ogoni Environmental Restoration Agency to Clean-Up the over 2,000
oil impacted areas in Ogoniland.

Rev. Nnimmo also said HYPREP should be scrapped because, “it is
not the main agency, no transparency in its processes and has no
road map”. Adding that, such agency as part of the Ministry of
Petroleum Resources that is culpable in the pollution of Ogoni
land and the Niger Delta cannot handle the Clean-Up of the area
as “they cannot be a judge in their own case”.